Stripped

For an album called 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘥, this one is remarkably overdressed. Christina Aguilera has a beautiful voice, the production is technically impressive, and there are moments when everything comes together wonderfully. 𝗕𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘂𝗹 is the obvious highlight, thanks in large part to Linda Perry’s songwriting. It’s a song that allows Aguilera’s voice to shine without drowning it in unnecessary decoration.

Unfortunately, most of the album seems determined to prove just how much can be squeezed into a pop record. The sound is unmistakably late-’90s/early-‘00s, with all the familiar glossy production and an extra-thick layer of R&B sauce poured over everything. It may be expertly prepared, but after nearly eighty minutes, I’ve had more than enough. Even the better songs struggle to stand out amid all that excess.

There’s a much better, shorter album hiding in here somewhere. Aguilera certainly has the voice to carry it, but she doesn’t need to demonstrate everything she can do on every single track. Sometimes less really is more.

Somebody should have taken the title a little more literally.

Pues sin conocer ninguna de sus canciones me ha parecido más llevadero que otras cosas de este estilo que hay en la lista. No me guardo ningún tema, pero me quedo con un buen recuerdo.

This was unadulterated torture to sit through. She completely mangles everything attempted here, and every song is wildly over-produced. Points for her unapologetic attitude, but in the end I have to rate the music, and it's just horrible.

first off, this is entirely too long. second, fighter and dirrty are stone cold classics. those things said this album is incredibly disjointed and i dont think the track order was given much thought. there is a good bit of variety in the songs but that also detracts from the cohesiveness of the album. the production, while dated now, was great at the time, shoutout scott storch and linda perry.

Christina clearly has mutant lungs and is an incredibly gifted singer. That being said sometimes she does this kind of muppet type voice and I dont need every song to have a vocal run or 14. I get it, you can hit ALL the notes.

Its good, dont get me wrong but I hardly feel as though this is essential listening. "Beautiful" will forever be remembered and covered for the rest of time, doesnt mean the rest of the album is even within the realm of it.

Might have been a 3 if it was half the length, but as it stands this is an ok album that overstays its welcome.

Porté par le vacarme assourdissant d'un plan marketing parfaitement réglé et par le souffle d’une époque qui réclamé des révolutions préfabriquées, Stripped de Christina Aguilera fait indiscutablement partie de la catégorie des monstres de foire de l'industrie du disque. Un quart de siècle après, on nous vend encore ce machin comme la rupture absolue, le geste d'émancipation sauvage d’une petite fiancée de l'Amérique qui balance son tailleur d'écolière Mickey Mouse aux orties pour enfiler des jambières en cuir trouées et frotter son nombril sur le bitume crasseux de MTV.

Ok, alors avant de dézinguer la bête, faisons un rapide retour en arrière.

Il y a quelques mois, j'avais abordé la discographie de la dame avec un scepticisme poli, avant d'être agréablement surpris par l'audace de Back to Basics. Enfin, agréablement c’est un bien grand mot, disons que l’effort m’avait semblé honnête, méritant un 3 sur 5 d’encouragement pour son ambition rétro, son côté cuivré et cette tentative d’échapper au carcan du tout-venant radiophonique. Le disque avait de très bonnes idées, une véritable envie de sortir de la naphtaline et une débauche d'énergie évidente, mais il souffrait déjà de ce syndrome boursouflé typique des divas américaines : un sentiment de trop, trop, trop. Trop d'arrangements, trop de démonstrations inutiles, trop de longueurs qui finissaient inévitablement par me donner une furieuse envie de regarder ma montre et d’abréger les souffrances de mon lecteur laser. En abordant Stripped, l'album de la métamorphose originelle censé être le joyau brut de sa carrière, j'espérais naïvement retrouver cette même urgence viscérale, ce frisson abrasif de l'artiste qui envoie valser les codes pour s'affirmer sans fard.

Et pourtant, à l'entame de ce volumineux pavé de plus de soixante-dix minutes, j'ai voulu y croire car les premiers morceaux m'ont effectivement donné l'espoir d'une rupture authentique. On sent comme une volonté rageuse d'en découdre, une jeune femme de vingt-deux ans qui tape du poing sur la console et refuse de jouer les poupées de cire interchangeables. Quand elle balance les décibels sur des productions nerveuses, entre guitares saturées opportunistes et rythmiques hip-hop taillées pour faire trembler les caissons de basse, il y a une étincelle de vie, une vibration animale qui semble prête à faire exploser le formatage ambiant. Les intentions sont affichées au marqueur indélébile : on n'est plus chez Disney, alors rangez vos peluches car voici le bitume, le stupre, les traumatismes d'enfance et la sueur des clubs underground reconstitués en carton-pâte dans les studios de Los Angeles.

Sauf que l’illusion n’a pas fait long feu, et au bout d’une petite demi-heure de ce régime, la lassitude a totalement et irrémédiablement emporté mes derniers espoirs et ce qui devait être une claque se transforme en une véritable corvée d'écoute. On réalise très vite qu'on a affaire à la même vieille rengaine de maison de disques, simplement repeinte aux couleurs d'une rébellion d'opérette et les codes appliqués sont éculés jusqu'à la corde. Le prétendu éclectisme du projet — qui brasse tour à tour le R&B mou du genou, le néo-soul de salon, le rock FM propret et la ballade lacrymogène pour fin de banquet — ressemble moins à une vision artistique audacieuse qu'à un gigantesque buffet froid où chaque producteur à la mode est venu poser sa sauce pour maximiser le passage en radio.

Le plus insupportable demeure sans doute cette manie exaspérante de transformer la moindre ligne mélodique en parcours du combattant pour cordes vocales. Aguilera a du coffre, c'est un fait indéniable que seule une personne de mauvaise foi viendrait contester. Mais bordel, pourquoi passer chaque syllabe à la centrifugeuse ? Pourquoi hurler sur chaque mesure quand une simple inflexion suffirait à toucher juste ? À force de confondre puissance expressive et concours de gymnastique pulmonaire, l'émotion promise s'évapore complètement, laissant place à une démonstration technique froide, tapageuse et profondément épuisante pour les tympans. On ne ressent aucune vulnérabilité réelle, seulement la volonté acharnée d'en mettre plein la vue et de prouver qu'on sait crier plus fort que la voisine de pallier Britney Spears. Cette surenchère permanente finit par noyer les quelques mélodies solides sous des tonnes d'acrobaties vocales gratuites et d'échos baveux.

On se retrouve donc face à un disque lourd, indigeste, plombé par ses propres contradictions et par une prétention stylistique qui ne repose que sur du vent et sur des clichés de production déjà datés six mois après sa sortie. Alors oui, le disque a cartonné, les clips sulfureux ont fait couler des litres d'encre dans la presse people et la jeunesse y a trouvé un parfait nouvel exutoire préfabriqué. Mais pour ceux qui cherche un grand disque cohérent, sincère et débarrassé de son attirail marketing, le réveil est particulièrement brutal. Au final, cette tentative d'émancipation s'enlise dans le convenu le plus total et ne récolte qu’un très mitigé et largement suffisant 2 sur 5.

Christina Aguilera has an amazing voice and there’s some fun pop songs here. It’s also way way too long. If it was half the length then it would get an extra star easily.

When an album pops up that I somewhat familiar with and don’t love, I instantly get in a certain mindset. And this is a very long album too. The good is she has a great voice. The bad is I just don’t prefer this style. I’ll give her three stars for vocal talent and really putting herself out there.

On its own, looking back at this album, I like that Christina has a wider range of genres in her music than her pop cohort. 4*
Highlights: fighter, beautiful, the voice within

This is another long one, but as with the other album I had from her, I'm impressed by her as an artist. There's plenty on display here to admire. The songs are generally pretty good, and there's lots of different styles.

I think she has a ton of talent, even if it's not enormously my thing.

3.5 rounded down.

Another vocal gymnast who can certainly sing, but uses every trick in the book to sing ALL the notes.

At times (You're Beautiful, Can't Hold Us Down, The Voice Within) her songs seem torn from the gritty pages of a new age self help book.

And at nearly 80 minutes it really does go on too long and seems unfocussed.

I do like some decent pop music, but I'd prefer Millie Small singing My Boy Lollipop to this bloated, self-important artistic statement.

I'm not very familiar with Christina Aguilera's music. Not my favourite style but I found this album pretty good. However, it is definitely too long. Some songs I think are fine: "Walk Away", "Infatuation", "Impossible", "Beautiful", or "I'm OK" (probably my favourite track). Overall, this is a solid 3-star album for me.

Dette var seigt, men ikke helt jævlig. Er noen store låter her som er bops, men jeg sliter med rnb og vokalrunking. En del spennende sjangermikser, da

Has this stripped me of the will to go about the rest of my day today? Yes, yes it has. It's just the most cynical R&B chart slop you could ever imagine. Completely hollow, distant and manufactured for a wide-eyed pre-teen demographic. She can sing, but everything about her presence and lyrical writing on this album feels engineered to make the mega bucks rain cause it was what the kids wanted innit!

From the album cover, you think it'd be a provocative, no holds-barred record. But the themes and messages in "Stripped" seem to go in different directions. I was in whiplash hearing "Can't Hold Us Down" transition to "Walk Away", a piano ballad. And this happens a few times, that the album becomes indulgent and overdone in its mood and runtime.
There were some gems that I love though: "Loving Me 4 Me" was so beautiful and reminded me of "4th of July". "Underappreciated" was also pretty groovy. I can hear her influences pretty clearly from both Mariah (vocally) and Janet (aesthetically). She seems to wear them on her sleeve (3-3.5)

Back in the 70s, Sony's vice president, Norio Ohga, requested that a CD be large enough to hold the entirety of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on a single disc. The benchmark was set using the longest known recording of the symphony, which clocked in at 74 minutes, some go to 78 minutes, and ever since then artists have strived to fill *every* second of that time, and sometimes it's been against their better judgment. Stripped is exactly one of those albums. There is a remarkably solid 35-to-40-minute pop record buried in here, but it's surrounded by way too much filler. As much as I respect her ambition to break free from her squeaky clean Disney image to deliver a bold, hyper-sexualized, and fiercely feminist statement, dragging the concept out with pointless interludes and a staggering 77 minute runtime makes the overall experience feel exhausting and disjointed.

That said, you can't ignore the woman's voice. When she actually nails it on tracks like "Beautiful" or "Fighter", she’s incredible. Yeah, she goes a little overboard with the vocal gymnastics, and some of the "edgy" stuff feels kind of forced, but if you look past the bloat, it’s still a pretty impressive showcase of talent that defined a whole era of pop.

3.5

She obviously has an amazing voice and there are some hits on this album but did it really need to be 80 mins long?

Not my jam, but impressive production and contributors.